OK, so CHKDSK ran when my machine rebooted, and displayed some stuff.
Problem is I have no idea what it displayed, since it then proceeded to reboot
the machine when it was done. How do I get it to stop, pause or otherwise let
me see what it did?

*

It's not obvious, I can tell you that.

For a recent article on CHKDSK I actually carefully timed a few screen shots
of CHKDSK running in a virtual machine so as to get the results.

Besides not being useful to the average user, it turns out that's
overkill.

I recently changed from Verizon DSL to Charter Cable internet services.
About a week later, I started receiving warnings via email from Charter telling
me to stop downloading music from limewire (copyright infringement?). After
that they sent notices to stop downloading movies from UTorrent. What's funny
is that both were files that never finished downloading. What I want to know is
how do they know who I am, where I go on the internet and when I choose to save
something to my computer? How does someone else know when your on a website
downloading anything?

What's the difference between an intranet and the internet? At my work we
have a page on our website that everyone at work calls the intranet but it's
just a hidden page that only staff who have been given the link and login
password know how to find, but I don't consider this an intranet (even though
I'm not entirely sure what an intranet is defined as). I thought an intranet
would be a server that is not accessible to anything outside the network which
is definitely not how we have our 'intranet' set up. anyway I thought maybe you
could shed some light for me and others.

*

There's no real hard-and-fast definition ... or rather what definitions
exist tend to get used and abused to the point of being very, very fuzzy at
best.

I'm with you in my general belief of what intranet should mean.

But "should" and "does" are often at odds, especially as usage changes and
definitions struggle to keep pace.

To whom do I report these IP addresses attempting to hack my
computer?

Hi Leo, I have two Russian IP addresses constantly trying to hack my
computer. My question is, I have their IP address, to whom do I report this?
It's driving me crazy and freezes my computer every time they do it.
Thankfully, Norton catches it.

*

Only two?

You're in good shape then.

What you're seeing is extremely common, and one of the reasons that folks
like me are constantly telling everyone to use a firewall.

Sounds like Norton's doing that for you.

I'll review what's happening, what you can do, and what you should do.

My wife has a Lenovo laptop with Cox as provider. As she finishes a long
email, not typing too fast, the screen goes blank, with the comment she was
disconnected losing the email message she was writing. How can the "writing"
time be extended, before the disconnect note?

*

In general, the "writing time", as you call it, cannot be extended. That's
set by the service you're using.

I'll explain why it exists, how it works, and why it's a good thing ...
really.

I am one of the "dinosaurs" of computer programming (my first college level
programming language was FORTRAN in 1965). During the first part of the class I
was totally lost, but managed to get it right by the end of the semester. My
eyes really opened wide when I took an assembly language programming course -
with some machine language instructions sprinkled in - and I really began to
understand programming. By learning how the computer works I began to
understand the logic on which higher level programming languages were built. I
would say if you don't get it after 2-3 college level programming courses then
you need to make a course correction and change majors.

What I tell my clients is that there is absolutely, positively NO GUARANTEE
you will not get a virus no matter what software is protecting you. The reason
is simple. Somewhere, viri are being written 24 hours per day and most
antivirus software depends on someone reporting the virus to its developer,
which must analyze it to figure out its "finger print" ("signature"), then it
must be added to the latest database, and then the user has to download those
latest definitions. That means that between the time each and every virus is
written and when the AV software can detect it weeks can elapse. If you
frequent social networks, music downloading sites, entertainment places in
general, you will probably get "tagged". Some AV programs claim to detect viri
heuristically, i.e. by their behavior. Problem is, it does generate false
positives. You can't always be a good judge of behavior. Example, a father
notices a questionable looking character in a playground following his young
daughter's every move. Suspecting a pedophile, he calls the police. Problem is,
when questioned, the guy pulls out his id and business card and he happens to
be a talent scout for Sesame Street. Annoyed, he leaves and the possible TV
star loses out.

The big problem is still YOU. You're driving the Computer, As far as I know,
over the period of time I've operated a personal computer, I've never had a
problem. Do I subscribe to file sharing, no. Do I invite anything that might
undermine the sanctity of my system? No. Do I allow someone else to use my
system? No. The fact of the matter is, that whoever uses that Computer has got
to have the knowledge that safe guards the integrity of that system. I saw some
information proposed that is " bleeding edge" But the real value is you and
knowing what to do, and what not to do.

Leo's solution is also what I often do (using a simple text editor such as
Notepad). For the FireFox browser you can obtain (free) an add-on called
Lazarus that remembers what you type into web pages and enables you to recall
it if the web page suddenly disappears (e.g. in an inactivity timeout or if you
accidentally close the page).

*** Leo Recommends

ScamBusters.org - Keep Yourself Safe from Internet Scams and
More

Anyone who's been a reader of Ask Leo! for some time knows that in addition
to technical topics I often cover many issues related to the non-technical side
of keeping yourself safe on the internet. Things like account theft, phishing,
privacy and more are all common themes that show up in my inbox as people ask
me questions every day.

ScamBusters
is a site run by my friends Jim and Audri Lanford who are dedicated to
providing education and information to educate and protect folks like you and
me from the vast array of schemes and scams that are out on the internet.

At ScamBusters.org you'll find tons of free resources on how to avoid
scams, identity theft threats, and urban legends that are making the
rounds.

This actually came up at a conference I was at
recently. There are two sides: it a powerful marketing tool, and an invasion of
privacy - or is it?

Are you being tracked online?

This week there was news of a movement to create a "do not track" registry
for the internet, much like the "do not call" registry.

Yep, big brother may not be tracking you, but it's likely that Madison
Avenue is.

Most people don't realize how much their online activities are being tracked
by retailers and advertisers. Most don't think about it, and those that do
typically have a serious and often paranoid misconception about exactly what's
happening.

For example a retail store might place your customer number in a cookie on
your machine so that the next time you visit the site automatically receives
that cookie and knows who you are.

Advertisers can also place so-called "third party" cookies on your machine.
Since the same advertiser may be displaying ads on thousands of websites they
can track where you go across those sites, even the sites you've never been to
before.

I just returned from a conference in Greenville, South Carolina. A lovely
town, but to be honest my conference buddies and I all spent most of our time
inside geeking out. What can I say?

One side effect is that last week Ask Leo! was on auto-pilot. Another side
effect is that I was pooped this weekend! The other side of the
country is a long ways away! A more concrete result is that my to-do list has
probably quadrupled in size.

So if I wasn't tired before...

'till next week...

Leo A. Notenboom

*** Administration

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